Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

For Immediate Release

December 27, 2006

Agencies Release Annual CRA Asset-Size Threshold Adjustments for Small and Intermediate Small Banks

The federal bank regulatory agencies today announced the annual adjustment to the asset-size thresholds used to define "small bank" and "intermediate small bank" under the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) regulations. The annual adjustments are required by the 2005 CRA regulatory amendments.

Annual increases to these asset-size thresholds are based on the year-to-year change in the average of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, not seasonally adjusted, for each twelve-month period ending in November, with rounding to the nearest million.

As a result of the 3.32% increase in the CPI index for the period ending in November 2006, the definitions of small and intermediate small banks for CRA examinations will change as follows:

"Small bank" means a bank that, as of December 31 of either of the prior two calendar years, had assets of less than $1.033 billion.

"Intermediate small bank" means a small bank with assets of at least $258 million as of December 31 of both of the prior two calendar years, and less than $1.033 billion as of December 31 of either of the prior two calendar years.

These asset-size threshold adjustments are effective January 1, 2007. The agencies will publish the adjustments in the Federal Register. In addition, the agencies will post a list of the current and historical asset size thresholds on the web site of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (http://www.ffiec.gov/cra).